January 17, 2006

Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected that argument, made by lawyers on behalf of the murderer Clarence Ray Allen, who was just executed. It almost seems that there was an argument that keeping him alive would be a way of inflicting more punishment on him. At least, one might say that execution has lost the meaning it is supposed to have for the condemned man. But none of that states a reason for clemency.

26 comments:

Execution is the meaning for the condemned man. The anti-death penalty advocates ignore the fact that there is no recidivism among the recently departed and the state does not have to continue the cost of supporting his sorry self in a prison.

Nor, do I think, would many people make much of a fuss if some of those old-timers were tried, convicted, and executed in some of those civil rights murders that happened on the South in the 50's and 60's.

I wrote at some length about this case (Allen v. Ornoski), its antecedents and where it's likely going - both yesterday, and again this morning. I was going to e-mail Ann about it, I was interested in what she thought about this (which this post doesn't address) but I didn't want to be fishing for links, and I wasn't sure about my analysis. ;)

Re: "Which cost taxpayers more - The support while serving a life sentence or the appeals while on Death Row?"

Since it does indeed cost more to fund appeals, you point strongly to the need for more rapid decisions. To reward a man who delayed his own execution until he became so frail that he comes to argue that frailty per se buys him exemption is simply stupid.

Either have a death penalty or do not. Abolish foot dragging and execute killers promptly, or abolish the death penalty.

1. Appeals have fostered a cottage industry in delaying tactics,2. Follow the money to find out who benefits the most on the backs of America's condemned,3. Who speaks for the victims?4. Is it okay that 9 guilty go free instead of one innocent sent to jail?

"It wasn't an execution. it was assisted suicide for a terminally ill man."

Since he appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution, that would suggest that it was an involuntary suicide. "Involuntary suicide by proxy of the state" - sounds a lot like an execution to me.

Jake,I'm pretty certain. Gary Gilmour's last words were "let's do this"; he not only declined to appeal to the Supreme Court, but point-blank prohibited his attorneys or the LDF from doing so. If there was going to be a guy who volunteered to go, that was the way to do it.

But Allen sought a stay of execution; the fact that, the stay having been denied, he offered some choice words is besides the point. He tried to prevent his execution; not the action of a man who wants to die.

Wasn't this the case that inspired the movie "At Close Range"? I haven't seen that referenced in any of the news reports (and I live in L.A.), so I'm either mistaken, or it's another example of how quickly [financially] unsuccessful films fall down a black hole.

I go back and forth on the death penalty. Life in prison is not necessarily all that bad for some of these guys. Richard Speck did drugs and grew breasts (anyone else see that obscene video?), while Richard Ramirez "the Night Stalker" has groupies and been married while on Death Row.

The Gainesville Ripper (I forget his name) married his attorney.

Living in a controlled environment is more stress-free for some of these people than life out on the streets.

Incessant masturbation, phone-sex, worshipful penpals, drugs...

I know a detective who works on nothing but death-penalty cases, together with lawyers who are morally or politically against it. Intellectually, sure, I understand their position.

But when I look at how this all works out in real life, and review the actual crimes, I'm not so sure.

Like Miklos, I go back and forth. I am not convinced by the moral case against the death penalty, and I think the Constitutional case advanced by Brennan et al is ludicrous, but I do feel that I have arrived at the view that my concerns for the reliability of our system of justice is insufficient to support it at this time. Because I have concerns about the miscarriage of justice -- that is to say, the execution of someone who is innocent, rather than the fundamental morality of killing guilty murderers and rapists -- if the issue were actually placed before me in a way which demanded a choice (a ballot initiative, for example), at this time I would vote to suspend the death penalty for the foreseeable future, or whichever option most closely effectuated that position.

In 1974, Allen committed a burglary of a store called Fran's Market with the help of his son Roger's girlfriend, Mary Sue Kitts. Afterwards, Kitts had regrets. She told Bryon Schletewitz, whose father owned the market, that Allen had burglarized it. Allen then had Mary killed. In 1977, he was convicted of the 1st degree murder of Kitts and received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole (the only available sentence for murder in Calif for a crime committed in 1974). In Folsom Prison, Allen met Billy Ray Hamilton. When Hamilton was paroled in 1980, he conspired with Allen to murder the witnesses who testified against Allen at the 1977 Kitts trial, including Bryon Schletewitz. Hamilton went to fresno, then went to Fran's Market. He pulled out a sawed off shotgun and then executed Bryon Schletewitz and two store employees, Josephine Rocha and Douglas White.